经济学人161:狗-人们最好的朋友

 　　Human beings and dogs

　　人类和狗

　　Man’s best friend

　　人们最好的朋友

　　Scientific research throws new light on a very old partnership¹

　　科学研究对这一古老的伙伴关系作出新的阐述

　　Aug 6th 2011 | from the print edition

　　Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behaviour Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet. By John Bradshaw. Basic Books; 324 pages; $25.99. Published in Britain as “In Defence of Dogs: Why Dogs Need Our Understanding”. Allen Lane; ?20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

　　《狗的感官：对狗的习性的最新科学研究可使你与之更好地相处》 。作者：John Bradshaw ，Basic Books出版，324页，定价：$25.99。在英国发行名为“为狗辩护：为什么狗需要我们理解”，Allen Lane出版，可至Amazon.com或 Amazon.co.uk购买。

　　THE relationship between people and dogs is unique. Among domesticated² animals, only dogs are capable of performing such a wide variety of roles for humans: herding³ sheep, sniffing⁴ out drugs or explosives and being our beloved companions. It is hard to be precise about when the friendship began, but a reasonable guess is that it has been going strong for more than 20,000 years. In the Chauvet cave in the Ardèche region of France, which contains the earliest known cave paintings, there is a 50-metre trail of footprints made by a boy of about ten alongside those of a large canid that appears to be part-wolf, part-dog. The footprints, which have been dated by soot⁵ deposited from the torch the child was carrying, are estimated to be about 26,000 years old.

　　人们和狗的关系算得上独一无二。在驯养动物中，只有狗能在人们生活中扮演各种各样的角色：牧羊，嗅探毒物或炸药，更是我们亲爱的伙伴。人们无法精确得知这种友谊从何时算起，但通过合理猜测这深刻的友谊早在2万年前就开始了。位于法国阿尔代什省的肖维岩洞，内有现存的最早的岩画，其中有一段10岁男孩留下的长达50米的足印，在它的旁边是大型犬类半狼半狗的动物足印。根据小男孩手上的火炬留下的烟灰估计，这些脚印起源于2万6千年前。

　　The first proto-dogs probably remained fairly isolated⁶ from each other for several thousand years. As they became progressively more domesticated they moved with people on large-scale migrations⁷, mixing their genes⁹ with other similarly domesticated creatures and becoming increasingly dog-like (and less wolf-like) in the process. For John Bradshaw, a biologist who founded the anthrozoology department at the University of Bristol, having some idea about how dogs got to be dogs is the first stage towards gaining a better understanding of what dogs and people mean to each other. Part of his agenda is to explode the many myths about the closeness of dogs to wolves and the mistakes that this has led to, especially in the training of dogs over the past century or so.

　　原始狗的种群最初是独来独往的，这持续了几千年。随着他们被人们驯服后，便大规模地迁移至人类居住地，与其他类似的驯养动物杂交，基因的融合使之渐渐形成了现代狗的模样（而非狼的模样）。本书作者，生物学家John Bradshaw，就职于布里斯托尔大学，人类与动物关系学学科的建立者，他认为要了解狗和人之间如何相互理解，就必须知道狗是如何进化而来的。他的研究之一就是探寻狼和狗的亲缘关系，以及因此带来的错误观念，尤其是在过去一百年内在驯狗方面的误导。

　　One idea has governed dog training for far too long, Mr Bradshaw says. Wolf packs are supposedly despotic hierarchies¹⁰ dominated by alpha wolves. Dogs are believed to behave in the same way in their dealings with humans. Thus training a dog effectively becomes a contest for dominance in which there can be only one winner. To achieve this the trainer must use a variety of punishment techniques to gain the dog’s submission¹¹ to his mastery. Just letting a dog pass through a door before you or stand on the stairs above you is to risk encouraging it to believe that it is getting the upper hand over you and the rest of the household. Mr Bradshaw argues that the theory behind this approach is based on bad and outdated¹² science.

　　Bradshaw说，有种观念长期主导了人们对狗的驯养。一般认为狼的种群是受阿尔法狼的专制。于是们认为人与狗的相处也有类似之处。因此驯狗的方式变成一种竞争，赢家只有一个。为了达到这个目的，驯狗者用尽各种惩罚使狗驯服。比如在你面前让狗穿过一扇门，或者站在比你位置高的楼梯上，其实是在鼓励使它知道自己的地位已在你和家人之上。Bradshaw批判说，这种方法所基于的理论本身就是错误和过时的。

　　Dogs share 99.6% of the same DNA¹³ as wolves. That makes dogs closer to wolves than we are to chimps¹⁴ (with which we have about 96% of our DNA in common), but it does not mean that their brains work like those of wolves. Indeed, the outgoing affability of most dogs towards humans and other dogs is in sharp contrast to the mix of fear and aggression¹⁵ with which wolves react to animals from other packs. “Domestication has been a long and complex process,” Mr Bradshaw writes.“Every dog alive today is a product of this transition. What was once another one of the wild social canids, the grey wolf, has been altered radically¹⁶, to the point that it has become its own unique animal.” If anything, dogs resemble juvenile¹⁷ rather than fully¹⁸ adult canids, a sort of arrested development which accounts for the way they remain dependent on their human owners throughout their lives.

　　狗和狼有着99.6%相同的基因。这使得狗和狼之间的关系就像人和黑猩猩一样（两者的基因有96%的相同），但这却不意味着狗和狼的思维方式相似。实际上，大多数狗对人们很开朗而亲切，而恰恰相反的是，狼对其他动物的态度却既恨又怕。“驯化是一个漫长而复杂的过程”，Bradshaw写到，“现存的每一只狗都是驯化的产物。曾经有一种群居野生犬类动物灰狼，现在已经彻底转变成为一个独特物种。”总之，狗相比成年的犬科动物而言，更像是幼年的犬类，这种停滞的发展解释了为什么它们的一生都离不开主人。

　　But what makes the dog-wolf paradigm¹⁹ especially misleading, Mr Bradshaw argues, is that until recently, the studies of wolves were of the wrong wolves in extremely artificial conditions. In the wild, wolf packs tend to be made up of close family members representing up to three generations. The father and mother of the first lot of cubs²⁰ are the natural leaders of the pack, but the behavioural norm is one of co-operation rather than domination and submission. However, the wolves on which biologists founded their conclusions about dominance hierarchies were animals living in unnaturally²¹ constituted groups in captivity²². Mr Bradshaw says that feral or “village” dogs, which are much closer to the ancestors of pet dogs than they are to wolves, are highly tolerant of one another and organise²³ themselves entirely²⁴ differently from either wild or captive wolves.

　　Bradshaw说，一直到最近，科研中的“狼”从来都是人工环境下的狼，因此导致了狼和狗的模式问题上的误导。在野外，狼群都是由三代以内的近亲成员组成。狼群中第一批幼崽的父母成为这个群体的领袖，但它们的行为准则是一种合作，而不是统治和服从。然而，生物学家所研究的狼群是被捕获的，并非自然构成的群体，因此会得出关于狼群等级制度的结论。Bradshaw认为，野狗和土狗相比于狼而言，与宠物狗的祖先更相近，彼此之间更加包容，它们的组织与野狼或是捕获的狼都是截然不同的。

　　Dogs are not like nicely brought-up wolves, says the author, nor are they much like people despite their extraordinary ability to enter our lives and our hearts. This is not to deny that some dogs are very clever or that they are capable of feeling emotion deeply. But their intelligence is different from ours. The idea that some dogs can understand as many words as a two-year-old child is simply wrong and an inappropriate way of trying to measure canine²⁵ intellect. Rather, their emotional range is more limited than ours, partly because, with little sense of time, they are trapped almost entirely in the present. Dogs can experience joy, anxiety and anger. But emotions that demand a capacity for self-reflection, such as guilt²⁶ or jealousy²⁷, are almost certainly beyond them, contrary to the convictions of many dog owners.

　　作者认为，虽然狗有着非同寻常的能力走入人们的生活和心灵，但它们并不像精心养育的狼，也和人不同。这并不是在否认，某些狗是非常聪明的，或者能深刻感受人们的情感。但它们的智慧与我们不同。有种说法，某些狗能理解的词汇量相当于一个两岁孩子，这其实是一种错误且不恰当地衡量犬科动物智力的办法。在一定程度上说，狗的情感范围比人类的窄，部分是因为其时间观念不强，它们的时间观完全局限于“现在时”。狗能体会快乐、不安、恐惧。但是与狗主人所认为的不同，大多数的狗无法体会那些需要自省力的情感，例如内疚或嫉妒。

　　Mr Bradshaw believes that it is difficult for people to empathise with the way in which dogs experience and respond to the world through their extraordinary sense of smell: their sensitivity to odours is between 10,000 and 100,000 times greater than ours. A newly painted room might be torture for a dog; on the other hand, their olfactory²⁸ ability and their trainability allow dogs to perform almost unimaginable feats²⁹, such as smelling the early stages of a cancer long before a normal medical diagnosis³⁰ would detect it.

　　Bradshaw认为，人们总想寻找某些特殊的方法，通过狗敏锐嗅觉使之与周围世界沟通（狗的嗅觉是人类的1万到10万倍），这其实是很困难的。一间新粉刷好的房间对狗而言是种折磨；从另一方面讲，正是狗的嗅觉和它们的可驯养性，使之能够做一些不可思议的事，例如能通过嗅觉发现早期癌症，且比普通医疗诊断更早。

　　The latest scientific research can help dogs and their owners have happier, healthier relationships by encouraging people to understand dogs better. But Mr Bradshaw is also fearful. In particular, he deplores³¹ the incestuous narrowing of the gene⁸ pool that modern pedigree breeders have brought about. Dogs today are rarely bred for their working abilities (herding, hunting, guarding), but for a very particular type of appearance, which inevitably³² risks the spread of physical and temperamental abnormalities. Instead, he suggests that dogs be bred for the ideal behavioural traits associated with the role they will actually play. He also worries that the increasing urbanisation of society and the pressures on couples to work long hours are putting dogs under huge strain. He estimates that about 20% of Britain’s 8m dogs and America’s 70m suffer from “separation distress” when their owners leave the house, but argues that sensible training can teach them how to cope.

　　这些最新科研能促使人们更好地理解狗，使狗和主人间的关系更愉快更健康。但是Bradshaw也有所担忧。他尤其反对为了培育纯种狗而近亲杂交，这会导致基因谱的缩窄。现在人们养狗极少看重他们的工作能力（放牧、打猎、看守），而是关注某种特别的外形，这不可避免的会导致狗的生理和性情的异常。他建议，养狗应注重其扮演角色和行为特点之间的联系。同时他也担忧日益都市化的社会和夫妻长时间工作的压力，会给狗带来巨大压力。他估计有20%的英国（8百万只）和美国（7千万）的狗，在主人离开家时承受着“离别的痛苦”。同时也提到合理的训练可以教会它们如何解脱。

　　“Dog Sense” is neither a manual nor a sentimental³³ account of the joys of dog-ownership. At times its rigorously research-led approach can be slightly heavy going. A few more jolly anecdotes³⁴ might have leavened³⁵ the mix. But this is a wonderfully informative³⁶, quietly passionate³⁷ book that will benefit every dog whose owner reads it.

　　《狗的感官》既不是一本养狗指南，也不是主人与狗之间乐事的描述。有时其严密的科研方法可能会有些晦涩难懂。其间更多的趣事或许能使阅读的心情平衡。这确是一本内容丰富、饱含激情的书，让你的狗受益匪浅。

1 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

2 domesticated   

adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He is thoroughly domesticated and cooks a delicious chicken casserole. 他精于家务，烹制的砂锅炖小鸡非常可口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The donkey is a domesticated form of the African wild ass. 驴是非洲野驴的一种已驯化的品种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 herding   

中畜群

参考例句：

• The little boy is herding the cattle. 这个小男孩在放牛。
• They have been herding cattle on the tableland for generations. 他们世世代代在这高原上放牧。

4 sniffing   

n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• We all had colds and couldn't stop sniffing and sneezing. 我们都感冒了，一个劲地抽鼻子，打喷嚏。
• They all had colds and were sniffing and sneezing. 他们都伤风了，呼呼喘气而且打喷嚏。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。

6 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

7 migrations   

n.迁移，移居( migration的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It foundered during the turmoils accompanying the Great Migrations. 它在随着民族大迁徙而出现的混乱中崩溃。 来自辞典例句
• Birds also have built-in timepieces which send them off on fall and spring migrations. 鸟类也有天生的时间感应器指导它们秋春迁移。 来自互联网

8 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

9 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

10 hierarchies   

等级制度( hierarchy的名词复数 )； 统治集团； 领导层； 层次体系

参考例句：

• That's a trip of two hierarchies. 那是两个领导层之间的互访。
• Hierarchies of authority, spans of control, long-range plans, and budgets. 等级森严的权力机构，控制范围，长期计划，预算。 来自英汉文学 - 廊桥遗梦

11 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

12 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

13 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

14 chimps   

（非洲）黑猩猩( chimp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chimps are too scarce, and too nearly human, to be routinely slaughtered for spare parts. 黑猩猩又太少，也太接近于人类，不可以作为人器官备用件说杀就杀。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

15 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

16 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

17 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

18 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

19 paradigm   

n.例子，模范，词形变化表

参考例句：

• He had become the paradigm of the successful man. 他已经成为成功人士的典范。
• Moreover,the results of this research can be the new learning paradigm for digital design studios.除此之外，本研究的研究成果也可以为数位设计课程建立一个新的学习范例。

20 cubs   

n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lioness guarding her cubs 守护幼崽的母狮
• Lion cubs depend on their mother to feed them. 狮子的幼仔依靠母狮喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 unnaturally   

adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地

参考例句：

• Her voice sounded unnaturally loud. 她的嗓音很响亮，但是有点反常。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her eyes were unnaturally bright. 她的眼睛亮得不自然。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

23 organise   

vt.组织，安排，筹办

参考例句：

• He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
• It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。

24 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

25 canine   

adj.犬的，犬科的

参考例句：

• The fox is a canine animal.狐狸是犬科动物。
• Herbivorous animals have very small canine teeth,or none.食草动物的犬牙很小或者没有。

26 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

27 jealousy   

n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌

参考例句：

• Some women have a disposition to jealousy.有些女人生性爱妒忌。
• I can't support your jealousy any longer.我再也无法忍受你的嫉妒了。

28 olfactory   

adj.嗅觉的

参考例句：

• He is to develop a sensor to substitute for the olfactory abilities of dogs.克罗克将研制一种传感器用以代替狗的嗅觉功能。
• Based on these findings, Keller suspects that each person has an olfactory blind spot.根据这些发现，凯勒推断，每个人都有一个嗅觉盲区。

29 feats   

功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He used to astound his friends with feats of physical endurance. 过去，他表现出来的惊人耐力常让朋友们大吃一惊。
• His heroic feats made him a legend in his own time. 他的英雄业绩使他成了他那个时代的传奇人物。

30 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

31 deplores   

v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He often deplores his past sins. 他经常痛悔自己过去的罪恶。 来自辞典例句
• Regretting the lack of spontaneity and real sensuousness in other contemporary poets, he deplores in Tennyson. 他对于和他同时代的诗人缺乏自发性和真实的敏感，感到惋惜，他对坦尼森感到悲痛。 来自辞典例句

32 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

33 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

34 anecdotes   

n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• amusing anecdotes about his brief career as an actor 关于他短暂演员生涯的趣闻逸事
• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman. 他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

35 leavened   

adj.加酵母的v.使（面团）发酵( leaven的过去式和过去分词 )；在…中掺入改变的因素

参考例句：

• He leavened his speech with humor. 他在演说中掺了一点幽默。 来自辞典例句
• A small cake of shortened bread leavened with baking powder or soda. 由烤巧克力或可可粉、牛奶和糖制成。 来自互联网

36 informative   

adj.提供资料的，增进知识的

参考例句：

• The adverts are not very informative.这些广告并没有包含太多有用信息。
• This intriguing book is both thoughtful and informative.这本引人入胜的书既有思想性又富知识性。

37 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。